below 8%. >> these numbers seem to have a bigger impact on the tone of coverage for a day or two on the campaign, but the public sort of is already absorbed the economy through their own prism. >> we are keeping our eye on two different things. we will get reaction from the president who will speak live at george mason university, and then mitt romney will kick off a campaign event within the hour as well in the southwestern virginia town of of aiavington. 86,000 more jobs added in july and august than previously thought. total unemployment rose by 873,000 jobs last month. that is the biggest one-month increase in nearly 30 years. will these new numbers mean lights out for romney's post debate afterglow? new ads kat aare catered to cri

inting states. joining me live is jan schakowsky. congresswoman, it's great to have you here. business pioneer jack welch basically calls these numbers into question. had this remark that he tweeted out earlier today saying, unbelievable jobs numbers. these chicago guys will do anything, can't debate, so change numbers. what do you say to that? even the white house though right now this morning reluctant to spike the football on this. in their statement saying it is critical we continue the policies that are building an economy that works for the middle cla class as we dig our way out of a deep hole. what is your response to those questioning the validity? >> that's really interesting because i happened to see one of those chicago guys last night. i was with david axelrod. i asked him what do you expect about the jobs numbers? he says, i really don't know. we're hoping it will be good. so, you know, it doesn't surprise me that romney supporters are now going to take

this very good news for the economy and for americans and say somehow the books were cooked. they just cannot stand, and they haven't been able to tolerate any good news about the economy, that somehow -- they've got to put a spin on it. so this is excellent news. i want to tell you, i will trade a not so great performance in a debate for great job numbers in terms of how this affects the american economy and the american people. >> congresswoman, the romney campaign has issued their own statement saying this isn't a real recovery. saying, if not for all the people who have simply dropped out of the labor force, the real unemployment rate would be closer to 11%. the results of president obama's failed policies are staggering, 23 million americans struggling for work, nearly one in six living in poverty. there are 12.1 americans out of work, many of those jobs added

though were part time and the number of people with part. time jobs seeking full-time employment did rise but what would you say to those who say i'm still out of work, i'm still struggling in this economy and this just isn't enough? >> that's, of course, why the obama administration is not spiking the ball tonight. but we are finally beginning to clean up the mess that was created under the bush administration and the blind eye that was turned to wall street, and, of course, romney is trying to change his story, too. in the debate he said, oh, i'm not against regulating wall street. really? they're for repealing the dodd/frank bill, creating the stage that would actually take us back to where we were at the hemorrhaging of jobs. we're finally beginning to turn the corner. >> when we look at what we saw on wednesday night, the president certainly under fire for this less than dynamic performance, some questioning whether he entered this debate

under prepared and over confident. as we pointed out at the top of the show, you are vice chair of the obama campaign, did you president underestimate his opponent and did it take the wind out of your sails for the work you're doing for the president to get re-elected. >> i'll tell you what, it's really hard to argue against somebody who shows up with totally new proposals that says, oh, he loves teachers and last week he said obama wants to hire more teachers and i'm not for that. that suddenly he's for -- he's not for cutting taxes on the top earners in this country, on the wealthy, and, of course, his whole proposal is denying that he has a proposal that would cut taxes by $5 trillion. there's a name to that proposal. he printed it out. the analysis that was done was based on a romney proposal that now he says he doesn't know what obama is talking about. it's utterly amazing, hard to

debate somebody who has totally different plans than he really has said in the past. >> does this mean the president has fulfilled his promise to get unemployment below 8% and this isn't a one-term proposition? >> you know, you can't deny the numbers. 7.8% is, in fact, lower than 8%, and that's kind of the benchmark that the republicans have laid out. i'm sure they are extremely disappointed that there are better job numbers in the united states of america because they have been trying to sabotage any efforts, every day i see it in the congress, they have been trying to sabotage any efforts that would actually make the economy better, and now they're just going to have to live with that number. they'll spin it any way they want, but there it is. >> i think bill clinton would call this number lower, just simple arithmetic. jan schakowsky, thank you for joining me this morning. >> and happy birthday to you. >> thank you. thank you so much. we want to show you those

numbers, 7.8% unemployment, the low nest nearly to yours. employers adding nearly 114,000 new jobs. the 7.8% rate is the same as when president obama took office back in january of '09. now, it claimed to 10% in october of that year before then starting to fall. last month unemployment dropping among adult men and women and also in teens, but it's still a whopping 23.7% for that last group. now, here is how we break it down. it dropped among whites, african-americans, hispanics, and asians, but unemployment among african-americans and hispanics remains well above the national average. joining me now is cbs contributor ron insana who is also host of a syndicated radio program called the market scoreboard report and with us from waution, jared bernstein, former economist for joe biden. it's good to have you here. jared, i start with you. as we look at these numbers, is this a true game changer for the president? >> it certainly helps. i mean, this month's decline in

the unemployment rate that you have been talking about from 8.1% down to 7.8%, that's the good kind of decline in unemployment because it came from a lot more people getting jobs. if you recall back last month, i was sitting in this chair telling you that the decline in unemployment from 8.3% to 8.1% was illusory. it tells you, as i said, more people came into the job market and got jobs. but it also tells you that the monthly surveys are volatile. however, i think there's other evidence in this report, perhaps we can get into it, that shows some momentum moving in the right direction. the pace of employment growth appears to be accelerating in the payroll survey as well. >> ron, i want to ask you about jack welch's tweet about the books basically being cooked. you know, he's a ge pioneer. we know him well around 30 rock. >> jack is an old boss, a very good friend, a mentor, a variety of other things. when you study the bureau of labor statistics, the unit of

the labor department that puts these numbers together, these are effectively career bureaucrats that serve a number of presidents. when you look at the household survey where you mentioned 840 some odd thousand jobs were created, they call 50,000 homes a month and compile the data. as jared was saying, the size of the labor force increased by 40,000. the number of people who got jobs increased by over 840,000, hence the drop in the unemployment rate. first time in many months we have seen it fall. >> reporter: but the total unemployment rose by 173,000 jobs last month. that's the biggest -- >> can i make a comment on this, thomas? >> sure. >> let me make one point. i'm going to say this very starkly. jack welch should be ashamed of himself. there is absolutely no way the bureau of labor statistics cooks these numbers. they have tremendous integrity. i'm sorry he doesn't like the direction of the numbers. i will very much, as i said, admit that these numbers jump around from month to month, they do, but to say that these books are cooked is terribly

obfuscating and completely wrong. >> can we show what the numbers are doing on wall street right now. i want to get ron's look at this. >> pretty good reaction so far. >> for sure. we see green arrows across the board so far this morning today. let's talk about the revisions that we've seen because we were talking earlier before we started the show that these can go either way, and -- >> and they often do. >> and they often do. >> during recoveries, you tend to get upward revision in prior numbers, whether it's the last couple months, or as the labor department does every year, there's a set of benchmark revisions to prior data that go back even a couple years. we saw that over the last year or so. 400,000 jobs more were created. during recessions you get downward revisions to the data you receive on a monthly basis. as jared said, they're volatile numbers and it takes some time to confirm the estimates that we get on a monthly basis. >> jared, mitt romney has put out a statement today saying this is not what a real recovery looks like. there are people, you know, nonpartisan out there that will

say we are in a recovery. it might not be a booming recovery, but we are below that psychological benchmark of 8% right now. is the wind at the president's back on this number? >> very much so. certainly the momentum suggests that, in fact, this is unfolding very much as you'd expect in a recovery with relatively slow growth, by the way. i mean, there are different types of recoveries. there's "v" shaped recoveries where you bounce back and have gdp growing at 3%, 4%, 5%. we have had the economy growing around 2% year-over-year and that's helping to provide some wind at the back, keep the economy moving in the right direction. the labor market is clearly improving. frankly, many of us -- i'm sure the president as well would like to see it improving more quickly. but it's unquestionably a recovery, unquestionably moving in the right direction. should it be moving there more quickly? would we like to see that? absolutely. but no question there's positive momentum. >> economists and the cbo have

given the projection of roughly 12 million jobs to be added over the next four years. this was the big talking point for mitt romney is he will create these jobs during his presidency. but this is already an established number. that this is coming on the economic path that we're already on. >> effectively, yes. and the private economists and the cb o economists in their budget estimates have put this number out there. and, yeah, the path would allow for that, although we've only recaptured 5 million jobs of the 8 million lost in the recession in the last three or four years. so we don't know what that number is actually, thomas. it could be 12 million, it could be another 4 million. it really depends on a couple of things. will this economy continue to move? will it gain momentum? will europe and china derail global economic growth? is there a geopolitical event that slows things down and drives oil prices higher? we don't know. the estimate is that over the next four years 12 million jobs or so will be created. >> ron, jared, gentlemen, thank you so much. i want to point out to everybody as i told you off the top of the hour, we are watching two events

expected for this hour. campaign events for mitt romney and the president. we're taking a peek right now. president obama will speak at this campaign event at george mason university there in fairfax, virginia. mitt romney is going to be in avingdon later as well. our power panel. america hiring now. what it means for the presidential race and what are the stakes for the big debate between vice president joe biden and congressman paul ryan? and wooing the vets out there. why the president who killed bin laden is struggling with that voting bloc? i get the opportunity to talk with the man enlisted to get vets to switch sides, the vice president's son, beau biden. is 7.8% unemployment the real october surprise? we want to know what you think about that. tweet me or find me on facebook, thoma thomasarobertsmsnbc.

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welcome back. we continue to follow breaking news on msnbc. both the president and mitt romney having live events in virginia this hour on the heels of those new job numbers putting unemployment at its lowest level in nearly four years. the new number, 7.8%. but are those numbers enough to change the trajectory of this race and in whose favor? here is carl bernstein on "jansing & co." last hour. take a look. >> so, carl, does this change the narrative, these new unemployment numbers? >> perhaps. i think we really need to look at who mitt romney is in this campaign, what he's tried to do in the debate is shed his manacles of the far right of the tea party fringe of the party which has come to control the republican party and escape it. >> all right. so let's find out what our friday political power panel thinks about that. joining me is msnbc contributor

jonathan capehart. also ap opinion writer for "the washington post." democratic strategist chris kofinis and susan dell percent yo. i just give you the heads up we are waiting for the president to come to the podium. when he does we are going to jump to that. jonathan, is this an etch-a-sketch moment for the president after a bad showing at his first debate and having these solid numbers and getting below this 8% unemployment number? >> well, it certainly changes the conversation, at least the short-term conversation, about the president's admittedly poor performance in the debate on wednesday night. and it also sort of strengthens what the president was at least trying to say during the debate, which is he's been trying very hard to, you know, get people back to work. he's put all these things in place that haven't really hit a lot of people maybe personally, but, you know, if you stick with him, you will see that things are moving in the right direction, and to have a 0.3% drop in unemployment is to be sort of the exclamation point on

that argument should at least give the president, his administration, and his supporters, new wind at their backs that their guy is doing well. >> but the white house seems reluctant to celebrate these numbers. we had david plouffe, who you used -- who used them really to pivot the campaign this morning on the daily rundown. take a look. >> the recession wasn't an accident. there were policies and reasons that contributed to it. and, you know, reckless wall street behavior, tax cuts for the wealthy unpaid for. these are the same policies mitt romney wants to return to. >> chris w 32 days to go until election day, how much of a fine line is the president's campaign walking when it comes to celebrating these numbers? obviously they want to pivot point off the debates and this could be that break, that moment where they can say, look, what we've done, it's working, and now nobody can criticize the president for being above 8% and the one-term proposition phrase they love to throw around. >> listen, it does a couple

things. one, it kind of pops to some degree, to say the least, the balloon of momentum romney may have had coming out of that debate performance. at the end of the day the debate about this election is the economy. it's about jobs. and when you see over 5 million jobs being created, we have dug ourselves out of this incredible hole that the policies of the previous administration created, the same policies that governor romney supports. that's a very strong argument. no one i think on the democratic side will go around and celebrate and sit there and say the job is done, but when the choice in voters' minds, especially when you have this debate in the coming debates, the president is going to be able to turn around in a very strong and forceful way and say, listen, we've created 5 million jobs. the unemployment rate is now under 8% and governor romney your policies are the ones that will end up creating a worse economic climate, a worse jobs crisis because we know that. it already happened before. so that's what i think it does. it provides the president a really strong contrast.

>> susan, mitt romney ate his spinach for that debate. peggy noonan who has been riding the campaign trail of mitt romney and what he's been doing it pretty hard in her editorials. noonan writing now the real romney is the one who can communicate. he's straight and direct and not fancy. forgivably jargony but worried about america and sin veer. that's the romney who showed up for the debate. stay that guy. can he say that guy? especially now he has to talk about the under 8% unemployment rate. >> i have been saying for months the unemployment number is going to be huge. the difference is now my democratic colleagues are agreeing, this it's important because it's now trending the other way. what mitt romney can do is talk to those 5 million people who have been permanently unemployed for over six months. there are a lot of people, 40% of unemployed folks are long-term unemployed. he could talk about the fact that manufacturing is not growing in the country. he could really reach out and say, i understand what's going

on. people hear a lot of numbers, and they're important, but at the end of the day, it's what's going on in their homes, what's happening when they have to pay their bills. >> it comes down to you and you alone. let's listen to the president there in virginia. >> but for the undecideds that are here as well as those who are watching today, you know, i have said this before, this is a choice not just between two candidates or two parties, but a choice between two fundamentally different visions for america, and today i believe that as a nation we are moving forward again. we're moving forward. now, after losing about 800,000 jobs a month when i took office, our businesses have now added 5.2 million new jobs over the past 2 1/2 years.

[ cheers and applause ] this morning we found out that the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since i took office. [ cheers and applause ] more americans entered the workforce, more people are getting jobs. now, every month reminds us that we've still got too many of our friends and neighbors who are looking for work, and there are too many middle class families that are still struggling to pay the bills. they were struggling long before the crisis hit, but today's news certainly is not an excuse to try to talk down the economy to score a few political points. it's a reminder that this country has come too far to turn back now.

because of your strength and resilience, the strength and resilience of the american people, we have made too much progress to return to the policies that led to the crisis in the first place. i can't allow that to happen. i won't allow that to happen, and that is why i'm running for a second term as president of the united states. [ cheers and applause ] i have seen too much pain, seen too much struggle to let this country get hit with another round of top down economics. one of the main reasons we have this crisis is because big banks on wall street were allowed to make big bets with other people's money, and now governor romney wants to roll back the rules we put in place to stop that behavior. that's not going to happen. that is not going to happen.

one of the main reasons record sur plass under bill clinton were turned into record deficits under george bush is because we put two wars it and two tax cuts on a credit card and now governor romney wants another $5 trillion in tax cuts that he can't pay for? not if i have anything to say about it. that's not going to happen. we are not going to let this country fall backward, not now, not with so much at stake. we've got to move forward. we need to invest in small business and manufacturers who create jobs here in the united states. we need to recruit 100,000 math and science teachers, train 2 million workers at community college, bring down the cost of college tuition. [ cheers and applause ]

we need to cut our oil imports in half, create thousands more jobs in clean energy. we need to use the savings from ending the wars in iraq and afghanistan to help pay down our deficit and put people back to work doing some nation building right here at home. that's the agenda we need. that's how you strengthen the middle class. that's how you keep moving forward. that is the choice in this election and that is why i'm running for a second term. that's what we need. [ cheers and applause ] now, my opponent has been trying to do a two-step and reposition and got an extreme makeover, but the bottom line is his

underlying philosophy is the top down economics that we've seen before. he think that is if we just spend another $5 trillion on tax cuts, that, yes, skew towards the wealthiest, if we get rid of more regulations on wall street, then our problems will be involved. jobs and prosperity will rain down from the sky, the deficits will magically disappear, we will live happily ever after. even though he's been proposing this plan for months now, he's had a little trouble explaining just how it would work without blowing a hole in the deficit or making middle class families pick up the tab. the other night he ruled out asking millionaires and billionaires to pay even a dime more in taxes. he said there's no way that he'd close the loophole that gives big oil companies billions each year in corporate welfare. ending tax breaks for corporation that is move jobs and profits overseas, he had never heard of such a thing.

who knew? who knew? when he was asked what he'd actually do to cut spending and reduce the deficit, his big example was to go after public television. so for all you moms and kids out there, don't worry, somebody is finally getting tough on big bird. rounding him up. elmo has got to watch out, too. governor romney plans to let wall street run wild again but he's going to bring down the hammer on sesame street. it makes perfect sense. virginia, we can't afford to double down on the same old top down economic policies that caused this mess in the first

place. we cannot afford another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. we can't afford to gut our investments in education or clean energy or research and technology. we can't afford to roll back regulations on wall street banks or oil companies or insurance companies. that is not a jobs plan. it's not a plan to grow our economy. it's sure not a plan to strengthen our middle class. we have been there, we have tried that. we're not going back, we are moving forward. we have got a different view about how we create jobs and prosperity in this country. this country doesn't just succeed when just a few are doing well at the top. it succeeds when the middle class gets bigger. our economy doesn't grow from the top down, it grows from the middle out. we don't believe that anybody is entitled to success in this country, but we do believe in

opportunity. we believe in a country where hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded and everybody is getting a fair shot and everybody is doing their fair share and everybody is playing by the same rules. that's the country we believe in, that's what we've been fighting for for the last four years, that's what we are going to put in place in the next four years if you re-elect me as president of the united states of america. that's what we're going to do. >> you're listening to president barack obama at an event speaking to people who have gathered at george mason university in virginia. i bring back my power panel. i have susan, jonathan, chris. susan, i want to start with you. you were impressed by the language, the excitement that president obama is bringing there. he should have brought this wednesday night to the debate. >> he should have brought this wednesday night. that's what most people are looking for. he's taking this news, tempering it which is what he should be doing if democrats try to spike the football or take a victory lap, i think that will be a big mistakes, but he's bringing a lot of energy right now which is

what he's supposed to do. and i think hopefully people are going to expect to see that from him -- his folks will expect to see that from him the next time they debate. >> jonathan, he's telling the folks on sesame street, big board, elmo, you're not going to end up on the unemployment line. >> chris harris sent out a tweet saying is it big bird is the only thing we'll remember out of the debate and i wrote back, good question. because i think it's true. the president's on it. you have big bird showing up at a romney rally. today, we're talking about it now. it's something that really resonates no matter how poorly you think the president did, the fact that we're all talking about big bird and that it's something that moms and kids can relate to and the president the way he juxtaposes mitt romney wants to go soft on wall street but bring the hammer down on sesame street. it's a great applause line, but it also sort of makes people think about, well, what does

mitt romney want to do if he becomes president because the person who showed up wednesday night, mitt romney, is not exactly the person who has been on that campaign trail for the last year. >> well, mitt romney, to be fair, does love big bird. he just doesn't want the government to pay for big bird's nest. >> sure. >> so when we talk, chris, about what we're seeing from the president, is the wind at his back moving forward and, again, we are anticipating mitt romney's speech later in the hour in virginia. >> well, i mean, the jobs report clearly has helped, but i have been saying this for a while. this is a very volatile race, and, you know, clearly i think the debate helped the romney campaign. they were in -- they were on their deathbed, and it's resurrected him to some extent, but, you know, there is still enormous amount of time left but the stakes i would say for the next debate are really high for both candidates. because for romney to have any chance of kind of building his momentum, he has to do well. if the president can have a strong performance and he can have, as you just saw in that

speech, that same kind of tone, and the part i would say he's got to add because romney was this human statistics machine and most of the statistics weren't even accurate, but statistics sound really good when you're not disabusing the other person of the factual nature of them. so the president has got to come back and be able to tear apart, you know, governor romney's arguments, not just rhetorically but with really hard numbers, and the numbers are there. and so i would if i was the president's team start putting those numbers in his stump speech. they will become second nature come the second debate. >> people like specifics, especially if they are based in a truthful foundation. my past to the power panel, chris, jonathan, and susan. coming up, the vice president's oldest son enlisted for re-election campaign efforts, particularly to get and connect with vets across this country. that's a voting bloc that beau biden knows very well. however, the president is not doing so well within that voting bloc. so beau biden will join me next

to talk about that. and then we'll also ask beau what he thinks about his dad and his preps for the vice presidential debate against congressman paul ryan. we're back after this. doing so well within that voting

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mitt romney - tough on china? since when? welcome back, everybody. today governor romney stumping for support from virginia's coal workers. peter alexander joins us live from abingdon, virginia. he's on the phone. peter, explain what is the romney camp's reaction and how do they want to defend these new numbers as they get on the campaign trail in virginia? >> reporter: thomas, we are here in virginia, the second stop in virginia right now and we're about to hear from the governor a short time from now. you can see the big placard for everybody to see, which is again the line that he's repeated as a refrain, that we can't afford four more years like the last four years. of course, it does sort of change the language they have to play with in the course of this campaign that romney has consistently attacked the

president for the unemployment rate being above 8% since the beginning of his time in office despite promises he would be able to cut it well below that place. obviously he will have to shift the language today but they say the message remains the same, sort of reinforces the issue of jobs today. one of the campaign advisers came back to me a short time ago, thomasing and told us before the rally that's going to start in in a rural, conservative part of virginia, romney will be meeting with coal miners who are out of work, another effort for him to try to support the coal community. he says that's a critical difference between him and the president. >> one thing he brought up in the debate a lot was talking about how much he does like coal. peter, real quickly though, governor romney is going to be giving a big foreign policy speech coming up after the weekend? >> reporter: that's scheduled to take place on monday back here fittingly in virginia. it will be at vmi on monday. it's an opportunity to attack

the president again and dominate romney's readiness to lead. this is something they were prepared to talk about at the debate, supposed to be a debate about domestic issues. they thought there was a potential during the final 15 to 20 minutes when the conversation turned to the role of governing for mitt romney to perhaps be able to attack the president's mishandling in their view of foreign policy issues. since that didn't take place they hope to make that point this coming monday. >> peter alexander traveling with the romney camp in virginia. peter, thank you. two days after the first presidential debates and democrats are still having this bit of a hangover as republicans try to continue seizing on wednesday night's momentum. it was a big night for mitt romney, but will that first face-off really affect how undecided americans vote next month? while this cbs poll shows good news for governor romney, it also shows that 69% of undecided voters were unaffected by the debate. using history as a guide, msnbc's rachel maddow added sop

context. >> the complete record for the president of this sort of thing predicts nothing about the outcome of an election after what just happened in that debate last night. again, in terms of who won the first debate when an incumbent president was facing a challenger the record for sitting presidents was 1 in 6 after last night. in terms of who went on to win the election after those first debates? look. it's dead even. wins, three. losses, three. half these guys won, half these guys lost when it came to election day. >> let's bring in and say good morning to lind ya, author of the book "the swing vote. . the untapped power of independents." the undecideds, that's who these campaigns are trying to reach out to. we hear how rachel breaks down the best predictors in all of this. in trying to convince swing voters, like in virginia where both candidates are, and we look at the nbc poll before the debate showing 5% are still

uncommitted, do you think they moved the needle at all? >> i don't think they did, and what i would say is 67 million people were watching this debate. that's the highest number that have watched a presidential debate since 1992, since ross perot was running. these undecided swing voters are paying attention, and they're not hearing what they want to hear from either party. you know, "saturday night live," bill maher, everybody is joking around, these voters aren't paying attention, but they are. that's just silly to say they aren't, but they didn't hear what they wanted to hear. one example, you talked about this big bird stuff, defunding pbs. the democrats are going crazy with this. listen, cutting all the funding to pbs would not fund the federal government for one hour. that's how small a percentage that is, federal funding for public broadcasting. so swing voters know this isn't

serious. they know they aren't hearing serious proposals. >> i want to play for everybody those people who are for president obama, their reaktss after this disappointing show on wednesday. >> i think he could have done better. >> i think that president obama is -- needs to put his gloves on and fight back. >> i didn't know quite what was going on as far as, you know, maybe he's dealing with some crisis in the middle east. >> i think maybe he needs to rest. >> looking for easy excuses for the president there, but for those undecideds around the country, those looking for passion from a candidate, didn't mitt romney display more passion about wanting to get hired for a job? >> yeah. there's no doubt that he had a better night, and everyone has conceded that, including the president's supporters. and i think when you look, the biggest thing to me was the president's closing statement which was kind of lackluster and

wandering. you know, when you compare that, of course, with what bill clinton said at the democratic convention, barack obama has got to make the case to the swing voters that voted for him four years ago why they should keep him in office and why he will do the job. and these, as you said, the debate was in k08d. they're in virginia today. these are the states, ohio, that i talk about in the book. these are the constituencies. suburban voters, starbucks moms and dads, america first democrats, npr republicans that i talk about in the swing vote. these are moderate republicans that don't mind funding npr but are fiscally conservative. >> it comes down to those battleground states you talk about. linda killian, great to see you. thanks. we've been talking about the gender gap and the so-called war on women. why didn't we hear about women's issues at all during the debate? i asked yesterday if romney's debate performance was the october surprise, and today i'm

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continuously releases calcium plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release. when voters cast their ballots this election, it will be the first time choosing between two candidates with no military experience in their backgrounds. president obama says his record on foreign affairs speaks for itself. yet a may gallup polls show vets favor governor romney. in fact, during wednesday's debate governor romney reiterated his commitment to strengthen the nation's military. >> we have a responsibility to protect the lives and liberties of our people, and that means a military second to none. i do not believe in cutting our military. i believe in maintaining the strength of america's military. >> so let's bring in beau biden, attorney general for the state of delaware. he is also a major in the delaware national guard having served a 12-pomonth deployment

iraq. he's also the vice president's son. mitt romney has hammered president obama for the automatic military cuts that could take place as a result of congress failing to reach a debt deal. even the defense secretary said the cuts could be staef dating. does that hurt the president in the vet community? >> number one, congress must act and avoid sequestration op any of these defense cuts. number two, you know, governor romney seems to confuse the defense budget from the veterans budget. what i have spent the last several months talking about is the president's, not just his decisiveness as a what happeneder and chief and what a strong leader he's been and going after al qaeda around the world and eliminating osama bin laden from the face of the earth, but also honoring the commitment to veterans. you know, mitt romney, as you well know, spent his entire convention speech accepting his party's nomination to be commander in chief and didn't

mention those serving in what will be america's longest war in afghanistan and didn't mention veterans once. his website didn't mention veterans until sometime this summer. the president has made sure we've honored our commitment to veterans, increased funding for veterans by more than any president has in 30 years. there's a very stark contrast just on the issues of veterans alone. >> let's talk as you bring up this great distinction between a vet budget and the defense budget, something the defense -- the defense bth is something mitt romney wants to increase, something they're not even asking for. >> that's right. he's asking for $2 trillion beyond what the pentagon has asked for and as smart as he and paul ryan are, they act like that's the answer to making sure we take care of veterans. as you know, the veterans piece of the pie is over here, the defense budget is over here. and the paul ryan budget, the romney/ryan budget would cut veterans affairs funding by $11 billion in the first year. look, we're a nation that has been in war for ten years, one of which will be our longest war, only less than 1% of our

population is serving in those two wars. it seems as though mitt romney and paul ryan are more interested in making sure that 0.1% of our population gets a massive tax cut than making sure we honor our commitment to those who served in iraq and afghanistan over the last decade representing less than 1% of our population. it's a matter of values and what you value. look, these are honorable, decent men, but they seem to value making sure that the wealthiest among us get a tax cut on the backs of veterans, 22 million strong in america, 1 million in ohio, many, many in iowa and new hampshire where i just was, and less than 1% of them having served over the last decade. >> beau, you bring up the romney/ryan plan, specifically paul ryan's plan is what has gotten a lot of press over the last year, but when we speak about the preps that your dad is going through to get ready for the vice presidential debate against congressman ryan, what do you know? what insight can you give us about how your dad is getting

ready for that? >> well, he's methodically preparing to understand and have a clear sense of what paul ryan's budget is about and it's been adopted by the united states house of representatives and been embraced by governor romney, understand his plan tom, by the way, with governor romney's plan to voucherize the va. he's studying very hard. paul ryan is a skilled debater, a skilled -- very -- he's very smart, encyclopedic knowledge of the budget he's proposed and the domestic issues that are out there, working hard to prepare methodically for the debate against sarah palin, so he's working very hard. >> delaware attorney general bo biden, thanks for coming on today. >> absolutely. we're back right after this. now we need a little bit more... a little bit more vanilla? this is great! [ male announcer ] at humana, we believe there's never been a better time to share your passions... because the results... are you having fun doing this? yeah.

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probably noticed one big thing missing from the first presidential debate this week, they talked about jobs, about taxes, big bird but not about women, an issue that at times has dominated the narrative.

joining me is susan author of the book "the nine phases of marriage" who teaches gender studies at marymount manhattan college. among the issues that we have not heard from either candidate from that debate, contraception, abortion, both big issues that have been leading up through the primaries certainly, why do you think they were omitted? >> i don't know. i can only tell you it was so unfortunate because nothing is more important than the female vote and also, equal pay for equal work and education and scholarship. these are big issues for women today. >> was this a moment of missed opportunity because there is a gender gap, certainly for mitt romney, with the president leading in the women's vote, the women's voter block. >> the president is leading there. let's see what happens next. i thought it was unfortunate. i mean there are more women in graduate schools and undergraduate programs today in america and women's have more, women of all ages. it's important for these two candidates to pay attention. >> is there a driving issue for feel mail independent voters in

the country as we talk about there are certainly people on both sides locked in, but it's the independents that will turn this thing. >> i believe based on my research, it's abortion, birth control and equal pay for equal work. >> do you think mitt romney has enough time to make any time of dent in that. >> i don't think his platform is appealing to a modern woman. >> do you think we've seen and heard a lot of critics saying mitt romney tried to get back to the middle in the first debate do you think we'll see that push in the second and third? >> i think we might but i'm hopeful what we'll hear next time is about women and what matters to them when they vote. >> susan shapiro, thanks for coming in. i know a lot of women probably share your feelings about that and hope to hear from the president and mitt romney about their concerns in the next two coming up. so some of you may have noticed i'm in pink today. this cool pink tie, not just any time, this is in honor of national breast cancer month and given to me by the american cancer society, my good friend

there judy forten who sent it to me for my birthday because i turn 40 today, kind of a big deal. teaming up with the nfl for a crucial catch breast cancer screening campaign. it reminds women 40 and older to get screenings throughout the month. nfl teams will win pink apparel and game balls including this weekend on sunday night football, the chargers versus the new orleans saints. so my thanks to judy for sending me this. that's going to wrap things up for me today. i'll see you back here on monday at 11:00 eastern. don't go anywhere, "now" with alex wagner comes your way next. and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news.

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so i know how important that is. o0 if we want to improve our schools... ...what should we invest in? maybe new buildings? what about updated equipment? they can help, but recent research shows... ...nothing transforms schools like investing in advanced teacher education. let's build a strong foundation. let's invest in our teachers so they can inspire our students. let's solve this. president obama may have failed to mention the number 47 on wednesday, but there is one figure you can bet he'll be repeating a lot in the next four weeks, 7.8. it's friday, october 5th, this is "now."